


Through the Night

by adisonwrites



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Decisions, Late at Night, M/M, Neighbors, Sacrifices, Stargazing, Stars, Unrequited Love, Youth, letting go, possibilities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:22:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26858167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adisonwrites/pseuds/adisonwrites
Summary: To other people, the sun is up in the galaxy; known to be the closest star to earth about 93 million miles away. But to Mark, the sun is down here, currently knocking at his window asking if he wants to spend the rest of the night with him.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	Through the Night

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by iu's [through the night](https://open.spotify.com/track/3P3UA61WRQqwCXaoFOTENd?nd=1)

_"All the words in my diary, I can't show them all to you. But that means that I love you."_

It was a typical afternoon, where students in the hallway looked like animals in the jungle, noisy and a crowded muddle mess just because classes have ended.

Mark tried his very best to be invincible with such chaotic mass.

He isn't the type of person who is sociable or the type of person who you'll notice in that instant. In fact? He doesn't have a lot of friends. He doesn't know how to make some friends.

Yet everything has seemed normal to him. He didn't want any attention in the first place. Mark has always been an outcast, and he's totally fine with it.

Mark closed his locker after putting back the books he used for his classes the whole day.

He shifted his attention to the lad that just came out of the cafeteria along with his friends.

His tall frame and fit body were like of a model. His eyes that seems like it hold the universe was calm and emotionless. His tan skin was the type of brown that was like a sweet chocolate. And his wavy hair so smooth and silky as if it was tailored from gold fabric.

Overall, he's astonishingly good-looking.

Mark suddenly felt the need to gulp feeling his dried throat. He remembered that the lad in front of him is already taken.

Mark looked up and glanced at them again. He was laughing with his friends when a certain person came to him and greeted him with a warm hug.

"Just finished my training. Let's go, I'll bring you home." Lee Jeno says to the lad. 

As Mark can clearly remember, the two of them had been dating since freshman years and they are seniors now. A strong long relationship to break if you ask.

Besides, the lad's boyfriend is Lee Jeno. He's the soccer team's captain while Mark? He's just the student who seats in the corner of the room and brings out his guitar out of nowhere, nothing more, nothing less. Mark was absolutely no match against Jeno.

Lost in his own train of thoughts, an arm suddenly draped Mark's shoulders which startled him.

"Gawking at Haechan again huh?" Renjun said to him, a smirk forming in his face.

"Keep it down." Mark glared at the shorter guy.

"Sorry Mark, it's just that your crush with that popular boy is overrated already. You should stop or else you'll just end up hurting more." Renjun stated as if the what he just said was still not obvious to Mark.

Mark rolled his eyes in response. He tore his gaze at his friend and looked at Haechan which to his surprise was also looking back him. 

A small smile appeared on Haechan's face and Mark was left with no other choice other than to smile back at him. He can feel his heartbeat race up and his cheeks getting hot and so he decided to turn his back at them and finally start walking with his friend to leave the campus.

Turning the lights on of his room, Mark threw his bag on his bedroom's sofa. He closed the door and dropped his exhausted body on his comfortable bed.

Mark let out a deep sigh and snuggled a pillow right after. He just came home from his part-time job and hasn't stuffed his stomach any food yet. Though he didn't have the appetite to do so, for he was feeling so drowsy from tiredness.

Feeling so close to reaching dreamland, Mark then heard a knock coming from his window. Deciding to cover his ears with a pillow and ignore it, the knock became louder and more persistent.

Mark sat up and groaned loudly. He went to his window and searched for the culprit who disturbed his peaceful rest.

He was so sure that he was ready to lash out to whoever was knocking at his window. He was so sure that he was furious not until he saw the person behind the contagious irritating knocks.

He was completely taken aback when he saw Haechan in front of him.

His neighbor who he always played with back then, his childhood friend, the person who became distant to him when highschool came and they started growing up was in front of him.

"Hey, what are you doing? Are you free tonight?" And he's talking to him again as well.

"Well, I was just about to sleep."

"Oh! So you're free tonight then." 

"Huh?" Mark rubbed his nape and confusedly looked at him.

"Wanna spend the night with me?" Haechan asked, a wide smile appearing in his lips. He wiggled his eyebrows and Mark eyed him, totally baffled by the sudden weird act of his neighbor.

"Come on! You know it would be fun!" The lad took a step forward and reached for Mark's wrist and forced to pull him out of his window.

"Okay! Okay! Calm down." Mark took his wrist from Haechan's grip and ran over his closet to find a hoodie. After getting one, he slowly jumped out from his window.

"So, what now Hyuck?" Mark asked her.

Lee Donghyuck, his real name. His family moved in the neighborhood when Mark was eight, he can clearly remember that Hyuck has been good-looking ever since.

And taking a close look of him at the moment, Lee Donghyuck became more good-looking. If that's even possible.

"Do you drive a car? Or do you have one?" Haechan asked while his eyes were busy looking at the surroundings.

"I don't have a driver's license Hyuck. What do you expect?"

"You still don't have yours? Jeno has his."

"Then go to Jeno, not me." Haechan shifted his attention to Mark after hearing his response.

"Right. I'm sorry. Let's just take my dad's car." Haechan replied and grabbed Mark, this time he just let the lad be. He let Haechan pull him away from his house.

"Wait here while I'll get the keys." The lad instructed him, and he can only nod as a response. Mark looked around their front yard, memories of childhood started to flashback inside his mind.

The sound of footsteps coming to his way brought him back to reality. He looked at his back and there he saw Haechan waving the car keys in his hand.

Mark can only shake his head as a smile made it's way to his lips.

"So where are we going now?" Mark asked Haechan as he watched him put all the snacks they bought at a convenience store in the backseat. Right after, he settled at the shotgun while Haechan started the engine.

"Tell me Mark, do you like stars?" Mark raised a brow but the latter just smiled at him. The car started moving away from the convenience store as the two of them proceed to the road.

"What? Why?" Looking at the moving buildings and trees, Mark focused his gaze at the window.

"We used to stargaze together, remember?" The statement caught his attention, and Mark can't help but to look back at Haechan.

"I like stars. But I like the sun more." He whispered, and the latter gave him a quick glance.

Confusement was evident in Haechan's face because of the response he received. It wasn't until a smirk slowly appeared in his lips and the next thing Mark knew, Haechan already stepped on the accelerator and reached 120 km/h.

"Hyuck! Be careful!" Adrenaline pumping to his veins yet instead of giving him an angry face, Mark only started to laugh with Haechan.

He was stubborn and Mark knows. He likes exciting stuffs, dangerous and heart thumping. He likes adventures and mysteries, the reason why Mark has always felt he wouldn't stand a chance on him.

He was the exact opposite of what Haechan likes. He knew himself that he was boring, humorless and a perfect buzz-kill. Mark hates reckless doings while Haechan loves it. Perhaps the reason why they can't collide.

Because it'll only turn out into a frenzy of discord and catastrophe. But Mark would prefer calling it, _a beautiful chaos_.

"See? That wasn't too bad." Haechan said laughing while his gaze was still on the road. Suddenly all the things that Mark could see on the surroundings were trees.

"Where are we?" Mark curiously asked.

"Somewhere close to the stars." Haechan's eyes lit up in excitement as he bites his lower lip to keep himself from smiling too much.

The lad's face beaming with delight, Mark stared at him but careful enough to not make him uncomfortable.

_Donghyuck. That simple name._

Mark never knew it would be his favorite.

_Brown. His sunrise-like hair._

He never knew it would be pleasing to his eyes.

_Eyes. Those chocolate cinnamon eyes._

He never knew it would be this interesting, like those deep pools of dark-cinnamon swirls seized the depth and heaviness of thousand untold story.

_Lips. His sweet pouting cherry lips._

This he knew that it looked beautiful on him, a perfect match for his soothing voice.

_But Him. The whole Lee Donghyuck._

Mark knew he will never be his.

Haechan parked the car, awaking Mark from his thoughts.

He saw the lad went to carry the foods and drinks they bought and find a place to settle. Haechan sat on the scutch grass as Mark only watched him stretch his limbs.

Mark slowly walked towards him and sat on the grass as well, breathing the fresh earthy mountain scent on the air as he found himself relaxing a little bit.

"This is nice, right?" Haechan gave him a small smile then took a can of beer and opened it.

"I'm curious, Hyuck. Why would a popular guy like you like to spend the rest of his night with someone like me?" Mark dropped the question he has been dying to ask yet didn't have the courage to say.

"Why do you always belittle yourself Mark? You're not just ' _someone_ ', you're my childhood friend." Haechan's slender eyebrows furrowing in confusion as he let the words out from his frowning lips.

"Hyuck we stopped talking years ago." 

"And that's exactly why you're here with me now." As Haechan said those words, Mark took a can of beer opening it in the process.

Mark suddenly realized that even though the lad beside him posseses many positive things, there would always be the bad ones. Haechan was also the living proof of heartache and every sleepless nights.

"Look up, Mark." It wasn't an order, the lad said it with a gleam on wonder in his own brown chocolate eyes.

Mark obliged and looked up. Jaw almost dropping in awe, he saw the stars that looked like sparkling crystals from the endless arch of void-black beyond the moon's corona.

"Beautiful right? It looks like there's a hand that tossed diamond dusts into the sky." Mark shifted his gaze to the person beside him and saw that Haechan's eyes glint in perfect unison with the stars.

It was true though, but for Mark? The stars mean more than that. It was like a beacon of hope for all the lost souls of the world.

"Mark, I'm sorry I dragged you into this. I know you're not into this kind of stuff, but I just wanted you to spend the night with me." Haechan threw the empty can on the plastic bag and then opened another one. Mark noticed that the lad's voice was sincere and solemn, like he was sad for something.

"Why?" Haechan did not look at Mark despite his question, instead he put all of his attention back to the stars.

Mark surely wasn't hoping for anything, he just wanted to know the reasons why.

"It felt so drastically fast, and it scared me but I know I can't let him go. I love him." Haechan replied, his voice shaking. Mark watched him as he drank a three big gulp on his beer.

Mark braced himself against all the thoughts that was running through his head and all the confusion as he tried to figure out what exactly Haechan was talking about.

He knew it was Jeno, but what about him?

"Jeno asked me to marry him after we graduate. He also has plans for us to migrate." Haechan softly murmured.

Mark was definitely lost for words, heart sinking painfully from the moment Haechan started explaining. He cleared his throat as he tore his gaze off of the lad beside him and just stared at the green grass on the ground.

Suddenly, he found it more interesting than those moon-dust stars.

Drinking from his beer, Mark finished it in just seconds. He wasn't even able to react to the bitter taste of it or how the alcohol burns his throat. That didn't matter to him anymore at the moment.

"Shocking right?" Haechan laughed, and Mark can clearly hear the bitterness from it. He saw in his peripheral vision that the latter slowly reached for the chips.

"Love is scary, Mark. You don't know what you can do just to secure it safe and unharmed."

It is indeed. Even Mark is scared of it. Look where it got him? He doesn't even know why exactly he finds happiness in Haechan's own happiness.

"See what I'm willing to give up, for the sake of love." Haechan continued, he wasn't even explaining anymore. He was telling the whole truth.

Mark nodded, afraid to look at the lad's eyes. He drank from his beer to gain courage to say the words that has been bugging his mind.

"Is it really worth it?" Haechan giggled before he leaned his head on Mark's shoulder. Normally, Mark would flinch from the sudden skinship but maybe it was the work of alcohol that he found it more comfortable.

"Of course, Mark. Everything is worth it for the one that you love." The lad softly replied.

After a few seconds of silence, Haechan spoke again. "I don't believe in perfect timings, because people meet by fate. It's never an accident, it's destined. For us to finally build our own happy endings." He put his hand up in the air, like he was trying to reach the stars with a gentle smile on his face.

"Look at those three stars up there, it's called the Orion's belt. That's one of my favorite because it's easy to find and see. I just find it really beautiful how the three stars perfectly lined up with each other. Like they were meant to be beside each other even though they were thousand miles apart." 

Haechan traced the stars on the air with his index finger, he was telling a story with his calm and soothing voice. He was watching the stars like he found his first love and Mark, he was just there looking at him.

Everything felt hazy and Mark felt light-headed but he was sure that he still knew what he was doing. He heaved a deep sigh before slumping his back at the grassy ground. Haechan looked at him before laying down as well.

"Do you know why I chose you to spend the night with me?" Mark gave him a quick glance after hearing his question.

"Because we stopped talking?"

"No."

"Then why?" Mark heard him sigh.

"We grow up together, and I wanted it to be you who I spend the last day of my youth, Mark. Before I finally say ' _yes_ ' to Jeno." Mark felt his eyes sting from what he just heard. His jaw clenching because of the deep emotional pain he was feeling inside him.

What was Mark even expecting when the lad beside him had already made up his mind.

"Thank you for letting me spend the night with you, Mark. I'll forever treasure this." And with those last words, Mark sat up as he took a deep breath before facing Haechan.

"Hyuck why do you have to do this?" Haechan sat up as well. Mark met his gaze and saw the confusion that crossed the latter's features.

They were just inches apart, and he was not saying a single word to ease the pain in Mark's heart.

Before Mark can even control himself, he already felt that his lips touched Haechan's.

When he stepped out from his bedroom's window to join him with his crazy antics for that night, he knew he would be taking a huge consequence after that.

When he let him drive his dad's car, he knew that he'll just fall for him even more by witnessing his weird sides. Again, he'll be taking a huge consequence after that.

And when he kissed him? That moment Mark knew he had fallen in love, and that was the worst consequence he has been avoiding for the past years.

He should've said ' _no_ ' when he had the chance. He should've looked away instead of jumping from his window to be with him. He shouldn't have involved himself to Haechan, because he was doing great admiring him from afar.

Mark knew he was screwed up. Because even though he knew that Haechan's going to get married soon, he can't stop himself from having high hopes for the two of them.

And because even though he knew that Haechan was leaving, he still can't stop himself from loving the latter so bad.

It was exactly the consequence he had been trying to tell, a ' _love_ ' that was hard to let go.

But maybe one night. _Maybe_.

Their paths will cross again.

When the two of them are different people.

Maybe then they'll be better for each other.

And maybe on that night, when Haechan wakes up? It'll be Mark that he'll end up with and not in the arms of another man.

_"Until then, I might not be able to give you the stars that you have always adored, but I'll send the glow of a firefly to somewhere near your window. And that means that I love you."_

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading!
> 
> kudos and/or comments are highly appreciated ♡
> 
> [twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/_adiwrites) | [cc](https://curiouscat.qa/adiwrites)


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